Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Still on break here. But I still follow the perambulations of EVE Online. In this vein I like to read The Mittani's column in Ten Ton Hammer. Issue 65, we find Mittens waxing philosophical. When you start comparing EVE to Orwell and Huxley, it's time to step back and take a deep breath. And although EVE is certainly a lesson in the darker side of human nature, it is, in the end, entertainment. Admittedly, stronger entertainment than you will find just about anywhere else once you play it at the level alliance leaders play it. But theoretically entertainment none the less.

But like strong drugs, liquor or any other generator of strong emotions, you would be well served by the old saw: "Everything in moderation and moderation in everything". Turning to philosophy to "find the meaning of it all" is a surefire sign that the deep end is approaching.

Instead of Orwell or Huxley, Mittens may want to look up Nietzsche instead.

""He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you"

Dude, once your CSM term is up, or earlier if necessary - take a break. Preferably before we're reading about you in the newspaper.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

I've decide to take a pretty significant break from EVE. I will still skill flip my main account and work on my alt accounts until their subscriptions run out. But for all intents and purposes I'm not active.

My reasons are, naturally, complex after 4 years in game. But a good part of it is the dis-enchantment due to the supposed direction CCP has been hinting EVE will be going. The problem with EVE is that because of it's support of greifing (I'm not talking about PvP - I'm talking pure griefing here) mechanics, most players develop a love hate relationship with EVE. The problem CCP has got is that it is very easy through miss-management, to tip the balance from love to hate causing all sorts of problems. There are features of EVE that make it totally unique. These are very desirable features amongst the player base. There are aslo plenty of features that detract from the game. These we put up with in order to play a game with those desirable features. A lot of these are also the reason that as popular as EVE is it will always remain a niche game and probably never crack the 1mil subscriber mark. The desirable features are such that it could easily do so with if wasn't saddled down with the irritants.

For me personally it was the "out of touch with reality" indicators that the price of stuff on the noble exchange imply. Also the evident desire to cut out EVE's industralists from new content. As well as rublings that wormhole space is not considered 0.0 enough to allow for the ABC's to be located there (whut?). All of this combined leads me to believe there's a chance EVE will start evolving in a direction I don't want to follow. Which gets me down. Which makes me dis-inclined to play EVE for now.

Don't get me wrong - the technical side of EVE keeps getting better and better. But the game design side of things is looking more and more like it's going to be making some fundamental game breaking changes (from my point of view) down the road.

We'll see. For now I'm putting my main into a skill flipping mode and going to play some other games to clear my mind. I'll probably re-examine the issue after the winter expansion and make a decision of whether it's worth continuing to skill flip or weather it'll be simply better to unsubscribe altogether. The development timeline however indicate that it might only be worth coming back in a year or two.

In advance to any meme queries: No, you can't have my stuff or my characters (everyone I've met who sold off his main lived to regret it later).